PRADHAN MANTRI UJJWALA YOJANA

This scheme was launched by central government of India to increase the availability of cooking gas to the women, working whole day long in their kitchen especially to women Below Poverty Line (BPL). As we all know a huge population of our country belongs to rural area, which are deprived of their daily basic requirements like electricity, fuel and other necessities. Especially women from rural area spend their almost full day, cooking for their families for which they are resorting to cheaper but more hazardous cooking fuels like coal or wood. Because of which they are harming health of their families and themselves. To improve health of these women and letting them not to cook for hours in front of “sigdi” (a traditional cooking stove made up of mud and uses coal or wood as fuel), government has launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) scheme which is affordable as well as cleaner to them.

Let us know what actually this scheme is:

For more sustainable way to understand this scheme let us see this table below:-

Scheme name	Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
Features	Free LPG connection
Who can apply	Below Poverty Line
Documents required	BPL card
Government funding	2000 Crore
No. of Benefited families	5 Crore
Merits	Improvisation in health and pollution control
Eligibility	Indian and above 18 year
Scheme years	2016-2019

To improve availability and application for PMUY scheme there are particular measures taken:

· To apply for the scheme a application form is available in all LPG distributors all over the country.

· This form is available for free of cost.

· Application form to be filled with basic details like name, contact details, bank account details.

· Application form must be submitted with a set of mandatory documents which has to be attached with application.

1. BPL certificate issued by panchayat or municipal department.

2. The BPL ration card issued to women.

3. Aadhar card or Voter ID card has to submit as a proof for a Photo ID.

4. Photo should be passport size with recent date.

· An applicant can specify the type of cylinder to be needed according to its weight which is 15.2kg and 5kg.

· After completion of application form, it has to be handed over to the LPG distribution service provider itself.

The PMUY scheme has a objective to bridge a gap for poor families by providing LPG at no cost. Basically the main aim is providing healthy environment for the family while cooking with cooking gas that advances the life of entire family but the secondary or u can say most important aim is empowering the women of this country physically (by good health) as well as financially as they run the entire household.

The scheme therefore envisages providing the gas with the woman of the house being the direct beneficiary. Families belonging to Below Poverty Line, their woman would be empowered by this scheme to apply and be the absolute holder of the free cooking gas supply.

As government has set about 2000 Crore in the current budget to cater this scheme and have a vision to reach about a population of 1.5 Crore consumers of this scheme.

Different issues that Ujjwala Yojana would be addressing are as follows:

· This empowers the women in our society specially belonging to Below Poverty Line and giving them a place filled respect in their families and the society.

· Reducing air pollution caused due to emission of various harmful gases by burning of fossil fuels for cooking in rural areas.

· Not only it is damaging the environment from burning fossil fuels, it has also affected enormously health hazard issues to the individuals. This issue can also be addressed by the usage of LPG.

· India has surveyed that up to 5 lakh deaths have occurred due to usage of unclean cooking gases. Therefore, this project visions to reduce the no. of humans dying.

· Usage of unclean fuels has led to fatalities in rural areas yet it has also been seen that it has increased a no. of respiratory problems to the children living in rural area. So this scheme is also expected to eradicate this problem.

So this was all about Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. Hopefully, no of people in rural areas subscribe to this scheme and hence can take full advantage of this scheme which will help them to live a healthy life.

Website: https://www.sarkariyojna.co.in